The road home.
The country road has slight bends and small rolling hills. The terrain varies from open fields to dense forested patches. Homes of every variety and shape flank each side. There are old wooden homes that look like they have soaked up the smell of home cooked meals for a hundred years. Small brick ranches on large plots are common. There are also huge plantation style homes with two story pillars and white horse fences that seem to stretch for miles. Signs of new development are apparent as, every mile or so, you pass a newly sprouted sub division. The cookie cutter homes in these communities seem stacked on top of each other and crowded when compared the rest of the homes that line the two lane blacktop. The way dips and rises again one last time before the concrete gives way to gravel. At the base of the hill is small white church in a stand of trees off to the left. Shortly after crossing onto the unimproved surface there is a bridge that spans a low marshy area. Looking to your right as you cross the bridge there is an old tree trunk visible through the pines with a large nest perched atop. The tree seems to have given its barkless skeleton the will to hold on for its occupant. Continuing up the gravel surface, the terrain rises again and the marsh gives way to more trees and homes are nestled between them in harmony. Sometimes the only hint there are homes at all are the mail boxes marking the driveways. The air smells damp and fresh as the trees pump out their life giving oxygen. The temperature seem to have dropped a few degrees from the shade supplied by nature.
The driveway has a small dogleg that won't allow for a direct view of the property. My home is barely visible from the right of way thanks to the multitude of trees that stand guard. My sentinels are of every variety. There are tall pines, dogwoods, hickories, tulip maples, and white oaks among their ranks. The floor of the wooded property is untouched. I let it grow wild because I think it's beautiful. The gravel driveway has a slight downward slope and grass grows from the center where my tires never touch. Once in full view, my home appears to be a cape cod. My abode is tall enough to accommodate two full stories but it is, in fact, a ranch. There are three dormers protruding from the roof in the front that add astetic appeal to the place. As the roof slopes down it covers the eight foot wide front porch that runs the length of the front of my home. An attached two car garage is on the right. The marginally kempt yard takes up a very small portion of the three acre property and makes my home more at peace with the nature surrounding it. A rock path leads from the driveway to the front steps. I made this path with a variety of natural stones that came from my property. The taupe siding and black shutters are pleasing to my eye and lend themselves to the natural harmony of my personal sanctuary. The building is constructed on an uneven parcel of land. As you move around to the rear of the home, the topography drops more sharply. From the rear, the house looks even bigger than it does from the front because of the sloping nature of the plot. Another covered porch in the rear mirrors the one in the front. The only difference is this porch sits seven feet off the ground unlike the front which is low to the earth. A bay window surveys the land on the garage side. Under the bay window is the door leading to the basement which is level with the terrain on this side of the house. Turning to face the back of my land all you can see is nature. The yard is small here as well. It simplifies maintenance and compliments the natural beauty of the Georgia woods. Beyond the grass, the trees take over again and nature is queen. The land in the rear is segmented by the natural brook that runs through the trees. Hundreds of years of erosion have created a peninsula in my back woods. After a hard rain, you can hear the water gurgling along as it continues on it's path to the north.
The diversity of wildlife I see from my back porch is amazing. I regularly see deer as they pick their way through my property to get a drink. Several times I've had to stop in the driveway to let them pass. It's so quiet in the woods that squirrels sound like elephants tromping through the brush as they forage. One morning I saw a pair of foxes walking across my back yard and wondered about the safety of my cats. At least once per week I see a hawk following the brook as it searches for prey and imagine it lives in the dead tree down the road. Fireflies are abundant in the evening. I can hear owls at night and a possum passes through regularly on her midnight quest for tasty morsels. In the morning the sound of birds is almost deafening.
I live on three acres of natural bliss. Sometimes I feel guilty that my home is invading this little slice of heaven.
The driveway has a small dogleg that won't allow for a direct view of the property. My home is barely visible from the right of way thanks to the multitude of trees that stand guard. My sentinels are of every variety. There are tall pines, dogwoods, hickories, tulip maples, and white oaks among their ranks. The floor of the wooded property is untouched. I let it grow wild because I think it's beautiful. The gravel driveway has a slight downward slope and grass grows from the center where my tires never touch. Once in full view, my home appears to be a cape cod. My abode is tall enough to accommodate two full stories but it is, in fact, a ranch. There are three dormers protruding from the roof in the front that add astetic appeal to the place. As the roof slopes down it covers the eight foot wide front porch that runs the length of the front of my home. An attached two car garage is on the right. The marginally kempt yard takes up a very small portion of the three acre property and makes my home more at peace with the nature surrounding it. A rock path leads from the driveway to the front steps. I made this path with a variety of natural stones that came from my property. The taupe siding and black shutters are pleasing to my eye and lend themselves to the natural harmony of my personal sanctuary. The building is constructed on an uneven parcel of land. As you move around to the rear of the home, the topography drops more sharply. From the rear, the house looks even bigger than it does from the front because of the sloping nature of the plot. Another covered porch in the rear mirrors the one in the front. The only difference is this porch sits seven feet off the ground unlike the front which is low to the earth. A bay window surveys the land on the garage side. Under the bay window is the door leading to the basement which is level with the terrain on this side of the house. Turning to face the back of my land all you can see is nature. The yard is small here as well. It simplifies maintenance and compliments the natural beauty of the Georgia woods. Beyond the grass, the trees take over again and nature is queen. The land in the rear is segmented by the natural brook that runs through the trees. Hundreds of years of erosion have created a peninsula in my back woods. After a hard rain, you can hear the water gurgling along as it continues on it's path to the north.
The diversity of wildlife I see from my back porch is amazing. I regularly see deer as they pick their way through my property to get a drink. Several times I've had to stop in the driveway to let them pass. It's so quiet in the woods that squirrels sound like elephants tromping through the brush as they forage. One morning I saw a pair of foxes walking across my back yard and wondered about the safety of my cats. At least once per week I see a hawk following the brook as it searches for prey and imagine it lives in the dead tree down the road. Fireflies are abundant in the evening. I can hear owls at night and a possum passes through regularly on her midnight quest for tasty morsels. In the morning the sound of birds is almost deafening.
I live on three acres of natural bliss. Sometimes I feel guilty that my home is invading this little slice of heaven.
posted by Glenn at 1:03 AM
1 Comments:
Once again I have to laugh remembering your comments about how inept you are at writing. Wrong! Your description of your drive home, the house you live in and the surrounding terrain was poetry. I can see it, smell it, feel it, hear it. Enough said. Thanks for sharing.
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